Joystick Junction opened on North Avenue two weeks ago. Its owners opened it after noticing the city had no retro arcade, and it charges differently from the other places in town to play. One $12 admission covers a full day of unlimited play on the video cabinets. The pinball machines, even inside Joystick Junction, still charge by the game.
That difference sorts Grand Junction's places to play. Video games now come with an all-day pass at 2889 North Ave. Pinball is pay-per-play at the new arcade, at a back wall of a phone repair shop in Mesa Mall, and at a few bar machines spread across town. If you're planning a Friday night or a rainy Saturday, the first question is which kind of machine you want to stand at.
Twelve Dollars Covers the Whole Afternoon at 2889 North Ave.
Robert Trevino and Briana Briseño moved to the Grand Junction area from Houston about a year and a half ago. KKCO 11 News reported that they noticed the city had no classic gaming arcade. They opened Joystick Junction on Friday, Oct. 16. "I've always wanted to own an arcade since I was little," Trevino told KKCO, and he credited Grand Junction's Business Incubator Center with helping the couple get there.
Building the collection took about eight months. Trevino told the station they drove hours to Denver and other parts of Colorado and Utah to bring machines home. At the time of KKCO's story, the floor had 32 games, many from the 1980s, and the oldest dated to 1979. Briseño told KKCO they plan to keep adding more. She also painted most of the designs on the walls, and the couple drew inspiration from Oregon's Quarter Drop Arcade, the arcades they visited in Houston, and the Adam Sandler movie "Pixels."
Between KKCO's report and the arcade's own gallery page, these cabinets are on the floor:
- Frogger, NBA Jam and Ms. Pac-Man, which Briseño named among the recent additions
- Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Galaxian, Gyruss and Popeye
- Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Virtua Fighter and Marvel Super Heroes
- Vindicators and Lethal Enforcers
Briseño's own pick is Galactus, which she called "just an easy shooting game."
The flat price changes how long people stay. With unlimited play, nobody has to ration coins for a fighting-game rematch or a long Donkey Kong run. You pay once, so a two-hour visit and a six-hour visit cost the same $12. Trevino described the point of the place to KKCO as "competing, having some cool vibes and actually going out in person and meeting new people."
Hours as KKCO published them at opening:
| Day | Hours |
|---|---|
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday to Thursday | 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. |
| Friday | Noon to 10 p.m. |
| Saturday | 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. |
| Sunday | 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. |
The arcade's own website lists Sunday as closed, so for a Sunday visit, call ahead at (832) 675-4098. Price listings also vary a bit. The homepage and KKCO both say $12, and a footer on the gallery page says $15, so check the price before you go.
The Pinball Corner Is Where the Day Pass Ends
The arcade's homepage spells out the split right under the price: "Unlimited arcade play - Pinball is pay-per-play." Its gallery shows Pokémon, Avengers and Star Trek pinball machines and lists them at 75 cents a game.
So a pinball player at Joystick Junction pays the door price plus a running tab, while the person at the next cabinet plays Street Fighter II all evening for the same $12. If pinball is your main game, you don't need the day pass to go looking for flippers, and the larger pinball collection in town is in a less obvious spot.
A Phone Repair Shop Turned Into the City's Biggest Pinball Room
In December 2025, The Business Times reported that the largest concentration of pinball in Grand Junction was at Phone Medic, a cell phone repair business in the Target wing of Mesa Mall. The sign over that entrance now reads Retro Games by Phone Medic.
According to The Business Times, the change came out of a lease negotiation. The mall store's lease was set to expire at the end of February 2025. Owner Tyler Butterfield kept the location, and the new terms limited cell phone accessories to 30 percent of the store's space. Something had to fill the other 70 percent. Butterfield had been taking retro video games to conventions around the western United States. "I just decided to bring kind of that, that passion of mine, into the store," he told the paper. Vintage video games and consoles went on the shelves on March 1, 2025, and the pinball followed.
The machines sit along a back wall that store employees call Stern Pinball Alley, with a few more near the front to catch the eye of people walking by. The Business Times described a mix of current Stern and Jersey Jack Pinball tables and vintage machines such as a 1992 Mario Bros. The themes include The Avengers, X-Men, Deadpool, Star Wars, The Mandalorian, Harry Potter, Dungeons & Dragons, King Kong, Jurassic Park and Pirates of the Caribbean. Phone Medic's smaller store at 1210 North Ave. had room for two machines of its own and a selection of retro video games.
The paper counted 14 machines at the mall as of Dec. 23, 2025. The store's entry on Pinball Map, last updated July 18, 2026, lists 11, so expect the lineup to be about a dozen machines and to keep changing. A user note on the same Pinball Map entry lists $2 a play for Harry Potter and $1 for the others. Mesa Mall's store directory lists Retro Games by Phone Medic in space 0504 with hours of 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Mall hours make Phone Medic the daytime pinball option. Joystick Junction doesn't open until 4 p.m. on weekdays, while the mall store is open from mid-morning. The two places also complement each other. Joystick Junction's floor is mostly 1980s and '90s video cabinets, and Phone Medic's back wall is mostly licensed pinball tables.
Bar Machines and a Big Redemption Floor Round Out the Map
For pinball with a drink, Pinball Map lists a few bar locations that its users updated in 2026:
- Cruisers Bar, 715 Horizon Drive. Three machines, including AC/DC, The Mandalorian and The Simpsons Pinball Party, as of a Feb. 16, 2026 update.
- Scallywags Bar and Grill, 509 28 1/2 Road. Five machines, as of an April 21, 2026 update.
Pinball Map is maintained by its users, so a bar's lineup can change between updates.
Families with younger kids have a different kind of option at Bananas Fun Park, 2469 Riverside Parkway. It advertises a 12,000-square-foot arcade with video, redemption, VR and claw-machine games. That's a modern ticket-and-prize setup, a different outing from a wall of 1980s cabinets with no prize counter.
Put together, Grand Junction has a 1979-to-'90s video arcade on North Avenue, a licensed-pinball room in a mall phone shop, a few bar tables on Horizon Drive and 28 1/2 Road, and a redemption floor on Riverside Parkway. Joystick Junction is the only one where the price stays the same no matter how long you stay.
Matching the Outing to the Way You Pay
Since the main difference between these places is how you pay, start with what you want to play:
- A long evening of fighting games, shooters and maze games. Joystick Junction's day pass is built for this. Fridays and Saturdays have the longest hours, with Friday opening at noon and Saturday running until 11 p.m.
- A few games of modern licensed pinball during the day. The back wall at Retro Games by Phone Medic is the biggest collection in town and is open during mall hours.
- Pinball with a drink. Cruisers on Horizon Drive or Scallywags on 28 1/2 Road.
- Kids who want to win tickets for prizes. Bananas Fun Park on Riverside Parkway.
The timing works out for this weekend. Halloween falls on a Saturday, the day Joystick Junction stays open latest, from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. Briseño told KKCO she wants people to "come out, bring your kids, have a new place to go and just make some memories." The arcade is in suite 8 at 2889 North Ave., and admission is $12 for the whole day.
New businesses like Joystick Junction are part of what we love about living and working in the Grand Valley, and we like sharing them with our neighbors. If you want more local finds like this, or you're thinking about a move somewhere closer to your own favorite spots, The Maves Group would love to help. Start Your Move with Maves.
